The Washington Examiner reports this morning on a criminologist’s connection between extremely hot weather and a decrease in homicides, tying the connection to a decrease in homicides this summer in the District.
Reports The Examiner:
During the record-breaking heat wave last weekend, there were no homicides in D.C. or Prince George’s County, the two jurisdictions that drive the capital region’s homicide rate. The last murder in the District was July 20. Prince George’s hasn’t had a homicide since July 13, a police department spokesman said.
“People say,’it’s too hot to kill, or I don’t have the energy to kill,” said Ellen G. Cohn, a professor at Florida International University who has examined connections between weather and crime for nearly 30 years. “It becomes more important to find a drink than exact revenge.”
MPD Chief Cathy Lanier told The Examiner that that wasn’t exactly true. She said it’s good policing that has made the decline possible.
“This is a sign of our success,” she said.
Interested in looking at how this year’s homicides stack up? Take a look at our spreadsheet, embedded below after the jump, and learn more about each crime by following the links to victim’s and suspect’s pages in the middle bar.
